1 00:00:00,500 --> 00:00:04,104 Whether it's online or live or what have you, please be patient with me 2 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:06,769 as I walk through some of this stuff. 3 00:00:06,968 --> 00:00:11,171 First, I want everyone to take a deep breath... 4 00:00:12,885 --> 00:00:14,873 Exhale... 5 00:00:15,013 --> 00:00:17,693 There's a lot of energy in an environment like this, isn't there? 6 00:00:17,843 --> 00:00:21,331 There's a crowd mentality that reminds us that we are involved 7 00:00:21,481 --> 00:00:24,798 in a singular social organism, and we relate to each other 8 00:00:24,948 --> 00:00:27,219 on a very profound and deep level. 9 00:00:27,369 --> 00:00:29,436 As profound as that is on one side 10 00:00:29,586 --> 00:00:32,652 it can also be little caustic and dangerous on another 11 00:00:32,979 --> 00:00:35,246 if we get too caught up in things 12 00:00:35,396 --> 00:00:37,794 that might move us in the wrong direction. 13 00:00:37,966 --> 00:00:40,808 I don't see that happening here but I do hope 14 00:00:40,964 --> 00:00:44,913 everyone can relax with me for a moment as I begin to speak 15 00:00:45,063 --> 00:00:49,611 this very brief but detailed, intricate talk. 16 00:00:50,343 --> 00:00:53,654 As you all know, my name is Peter Joseph and I work 17 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:56,822 with an organization called the Zeitgeist Movement. 18 00:00:56,972 --> 00:00:59,389 [cheering] 19 00:00:59,539 --> 00:01:01,395 Thank you. 20 00:01:01,997 --> 00:01:07,067 This movement was founded in 2008 and it's a sustainability advocacy group 21 00:01:07,225 --> 00:01:10,737 without country, without classes 22 00:01:10,904 --> 00:01:12,990 without any religion or race. 23 00:01:13,140 --> 00:01:17,744 It is a global concept working to unify the human species 24 00:01:18,111 --> 00:01:22,549 in a way that's considered humane and actually sustainable. 25 00:01:22,689 --> 00:01:24,913 In the longer-term interest 26 00:01:25,053 --> 00:01:28,065 we actually seek something that I think many of you might share 27 00:01:28,215 --> 00:01:33,493 which is the removal of the entire socio-economic system itself. 28 00:01:34,862 --> 00:01:38,198 The details of which 29 00:01:38,568 --> 00:01:42,803 I'm going to express as I continue this talk. 30 00:01:44,968 --> 00:01:47,040 I pulled out some history books recently to see 31 00:01:47,190 --> 00:01:50,811 if I'd seen anything like this in basic modern history. 32 00:01:51,011 --> 00:01:53,517 Has there ever been a movement that actually goes 33 00:01:53,667 --> 00:01:57,284 against the financial and corporate powers on this scale 34 00:01:57,484 --> 00:02:02,431 and in the community globally, ever and there hasn't been. 35 00:02:02,581 --> 00:02:05,710 That's a very telling sign as far as the awareness of the culture 36 00:02:05,860 --> 00:02:09,930 wouldn't you say? Many people yell at political buildings 37 00:02:10,070 --> 00:02:14,762 and they work to try and engage their political establishment 38 00:02:14,902 --> 00:02:19,373 with the idea that it actually is where the power resides in this world 39 00:02:19,540 --> 00:02:22,910 that we share, when it's very clear that the power is obviously 40 00:02:23,110 --> 00:02:26,079 within the financial structure and always has been. 41 00:02:27,675 --> 00:02:30,278 Even with the Great Depression when I researched these issues 42 00:02:30,428 --> 00:02:35,173 I found nothing that really went after the true powers that be. 43 00:02:40,238 --> 00:02:41,937 There's a man named John McMurtry 44 00:02:42,087 --> 00:02:44,639 which some of you might be familiar with. 45 00:02:44,998 --> 00:02:49,532 He made a very unique analogy to where we are with this state of affairs. 46 00:02:51,935 --> 00:02:54,133 He stated that what we're seeing in the world today 47 00:02:54,283 --> 00:02:58,378 is actually the rise of the social immune system 48 00:02:58,679 --> 00:03:01,311 not the rise of a political ideology 49 00:03:01,461 --> 00:03:03,624 but the rise of a defense mechanism 50 00:03:03,774 --> 00:03:06,203 coming from the very fabric of our culture 51 00:03:06,353 --> 00:03:12,226 that sees that something is extremely wrong and very cancerous 52 00:03:12,459 --> 00:03:15,329 to society as a whole. 53 00:03:16,224 --> 00:03:18,396 We, the social immune system, need to work 54 00:03:18,546 --> 00:03:22,792 to recognize the true root problem, and then move to remove it 55 00:03:22,942 --> 00:03:25,970 as fast as possible before it takes hold 56 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,643 and essentially works for our own termination. 57 00:03:32,485 --> 00:03:36,083 As the cancer has grown since the inception of the system 58 00:03:36,250 --> 00:03:40,070 that I'm going to speak of, it's become more malignant, more caustic 59 00:03:40,220 --> 00:03:42,172 and obviously across the world 60 00:03:42,322 --> 00:03:47,177 absent of any country, nation or political party. 61 00:03:47,327 --> 00:03:50,082 We're beginning to see its caustic effects. 62 00:03:50,564 --> 00:03:55,853 Just as the cancer in our bodies produces different symptoms 63 00:03:56,008 --> 00:04:00,779 that harm certain areas first, such as our lungs or our kidneys 64 00:04:01,158 --> 00:04:04,261 we need to ask the question "Where is the real sickness lying?" 65 00:04:04,411 --> 00:04:07,480 I heard someone yell out capitalism a moment ago 66 00:04:07,765 --> 00:04:12,326 but is that really the psychology that's underlying the problem that we see 67 00:04:12,476 --> 00:04:15,725 or is it simply a manifestation of something even more flawed 68 00:04:15,875 --> 00:04:18,617 at the foundational level? 69 00:04:19,255 --> 00:04:22,097 Are we actually seeing this cancer for what it is 70 00:04:22,407 --> 00:04:24,865 really working to correct it at the root source 71 00:04:25,060 --> 00:04:27,997 or are we just addressing its symptoms? 72 00:04:30,142 --> 00:04:33,424 This is the question I would like to pose, not only to Occupy LA 73 00:04:33,574 --> 00:04:35,948 but to the entire movement related 74 00:04:36,098 --> 00:04:39,694 and all those that are worried about the state-of-affairs on this planet. 75 00:04:40,271 --> 00:04:41,978 How do we diagnose the real issue? 76 00:04:42,128 --> 00:04:46,856 How should we feel about the 1% which own 40% of the planet's wealth? 77 00:04:47,006 --> 00:04:50,324 How should we feel about 400 Americans that have more wealth 78 00:04:50,494 --> 00:04:53,827 than 150 million Americans combined? 79 00:04:54,310 --> 00:04:56,835 How should we feel about top hedge fund managers 80 00:04:56,985 --> 00:05:00,133 that take home over 300 million dollars a year 81 00:05:00,718 --> 00:05:02,803 and for what? 82 00:05:03,156 --> 00:05:07,605 Do these hedge funds managers actually create anything? 83 00:05:07,755 --> 00:05:10,792 Last I checked, the measure of our market system 84 00:05:10,942 --> 00:05:13,526 which justifies its competitive nature 85 00:05:13,827 --> 00:05:16,813 is that those who contribute the most to society 86 00:05:16,963 --> 00:05:19,520 are supposed to be the ones that are most rewarded. 87 00:05:19,727 --> 00:05:23,190 Obviously, the exact opposite is true. 88 00:05:26,127 --> 00:05:28,905 As a quick aside I will state that if there's anything 89 00:05:29,055 --> 00:05:33,465 that can represent the tumor of the system that we inhabit 90 00:05:33,655 --> 00:05:36,232 it would be Wall Street, the Stock Exchange 91 00:05:36,382 --> 00:05:39,439 and the banking establishment as a whole. 92 00:05:41,450 --> 00:05:46,530 But again, the tumors are not actually the source of this disease. 93 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:51,301 They are symptoms. Symptoms, just as the rampant foreclosures 94 00:05:51,441 --> 00:05:54,721 forcing people out of their homes, are symptoms. 95 00:05:55,055 --> 00:05:57,596 Symptoms, like the ongoing economic decline 96 00:05:57,746 --> 00:06:01,929 and loss of so-called growth, are symptoms. 97 00:06:02,354 --> 00:06:05,868 Symptoms, like the ongoing debt crisis 98 00:06:06,008 --> 00:06:09,015 that is yet to fully hit America 99 00:06:10,445 --> 00:06:12,657 but has already taken its toll in the EU 100 00:06:12,807 --> 00:06:15,089 Greece, Italy, Portugal and many others. 101 00:06:15,239 --> 00:06:17,897 Obviously no resolution has been found. Why? 102 00:06:18,047 --> 00:06:21,357 Because they're trying to resolve the problems that have been generated 103 00:06:21,497 --> 00:06:25,258 within this system by using mechanisms of this system. 104 00:06:28,348 --> 00:06:31,725 Even as our governments continue to bail out banks across the world 105 00:06:32,159 --> 00:06:34,692 they impose austerity on us. 106 00:06:34,842 --> 00:06:37,030 Is that at the result of something negative? 107 00:06:37,297 --> 00:06:41,552 Are these people just evil? Are they just trying to do the worst they can 108 00:06:41,702 --> 00:06:44,204 to insult the humanity of us? 109 00:06:45,996 --> 00:06:49,929 Are they just corrupt, greedy criminals? Anomalies? 110 00:06:50,079 --> 00:06:54,414 Are they aliens from another planet that have come down to fuck with us? 111 00:06:59,086 --> 00:07:01,178 Well, they're people, exactly 112 00:07:01,328 --> 00:07:04,170 and they are likely manifestations of this cancer 113 00:07:04,351 --> 00:07:06,590 rather than a cause of it. 114 00:07:10,277 --> 00:07:14,440 As the world awakens to this financial system and its flaws 115 00:07:14,592 --> 00:07:18,383 I've noticed a very radical perspective slowly being realized 116 00:07:18,533 --> 00:07:20,816 which transcends the economic tradition 117 00:07:20,966 --> 00:07:23,810 many of us assumed to be natural to our way of life. 118 00:07:23,963 --> 00:07:25,798 You notice that we tend to assume 119 00:07:25,948 --> 00:07:29,484 that the systems we're born into, the traditional systems 120 00:07:29,777 --> 00:07:33,201 are automatically assumed to be empirical. Have you ever noticed that? 121 00:07:33,351 --> 00:07:36,323 We might look at politics and governments as we know it 122 00:07:36,490 --> 00:07:38,912 as a whole and assume it's valid, why? 123 00:07:39,062 --> 00:07:43,340 Because that's all we've ever known. Is it any true measure of logic? 124 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:46,760 Probably not. It's simply tradition. It's custom. 125 00:07:46,900 --> 00:07:50,104 You'll find that we seem to be locked into custom frames of reference 126 00:07:50,244 --> 00:07:52,624 rather than emergent frames of reference 127 00:07:52,774 --> 00:07:57,702 and that is fundamentally what needs to change in our view of reality. 128 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:04,012 We might look at the market system, our use of money 129 00:08:04,152 --> 00:08:07,715 and assume it will always be there, right? 130 00:08:07,855 --> 00:08:12,074 Not because of any benchmark of our earthly economic measure 131 00:08:12,214 --> 00:08:14,738 of what it truly means to be sustainable, not because of 132 00:08:14,878 --> 00:08:18,444 any scientific realization of what human behavior actually entails 133 00:08:18,584 --> 00:08:22,599 and how we tend to act based on what's reinforced in our culture 134 00:08:22,739 --> 00:08:26,695 but simply because that's all we've ever known. 135 00:08:27,489 --> 00:08:32,220 However, as the bio-social pressures 136 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,616 continue to grind down the global workforce 137 00:08:35,756 --> 00:08:39,884 as machine automation continues to replace human labor 138 00:08:40,034 --> 00:08:44,733 for the benefit of saving corporations' money 139 00:08:44,883 --> 00:08:47,694 reducing purchasing power, your money 140 00:08:47,915 --> 00:08:51,331 and inevitably stifling economic growth 141 00:08:51,636 --> 00:08:54,268 our perspective might just grow a little bit larger 142 00:08:54,418 --> 00:08:57,484 than the traditional norms we've come to understand. 143 00:08:58,363 --> 00:09:03,352 Maybe, human employment for income as we know it 144 00:09:03,502 --> 00:09:06,340 something that I've heard in rhetoric a lot of people complaining about: 145 00:09:06,490 --> 00:09:09,493 "Where's our jobs?" maybe the foundation 146 00:09:09,643 --> 00:09:14,488 of our entire economic system simply isn't going to work anymore 147 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:20,288 because we realize the non-stop effects of science and technology 148 00:09:20,438 --> 00:09:22,717 hence the emergent nature of reality 149 00:09:22,867 --> 00:09:26,614 clashing with our traditional assumptions. 150 00:09:29,203 --> 00:09:33,524 Perhaps even with the expanding debt crisis 151 00:09:33,674 --> 00:09:36,543 born out of the fractional reserve lending system 152 00:09:36,821 --> 00:09:41,554 and the structural reality that money is actually created out of debt 153 00:09:41,704 --> 00:09:45,935 and sold as a commodity in exchange for interest 154 00:09:46,075 --> 00:09:51,431 that can only come into existence through the creation of more loan sales 155 00:09:51,571 --> 00:09:53,293 and the creation of more money. 156 00:09:53,625 --> 00:09:56,779 Maybe, the debt collapses aren't the result 157 00:09:56,929 --> 00:10:02,302 of some political policy or some corporate or government malfeasance. 158 00:10:02,469 --> 00:10:06,415 Maybe they are the result of the actual structural form 159 00:10:06,631 --> 00:10:10,777 of this system that we inhabit. 160 00:10:12,332 --> 00:10:15,249 With the psychology of growth and consumption 161 00:10:15,476 --> 00:10:17,867 that continues to create 162 00:10:18,017 --> 00:10:23,195 the ongoing social and environmental destruction that we see: 163 00:10:23,345 --> 00:10:25,774 abuse and exploitation all around us 164 00:10:25,924 --> 00:10:27,979 that so many environmentalists complain about 165 00:10:28,129 --> 00:10:32,699 yet they still tend not to realize that the system is based on that. 166 00:10:33,348 --> 00:10:38,272 It's defined by consumption. It's defined by turnover 167 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,355 and we often think that corporations should be held responsible 168 00:10:41,505 --> 00:10:44,178 for their actions because of their abuse of this nature 169 00:10:44,378 --> 00:10:47,192 when the competitive market model of economics 170 00:10:47,332 --> 00:10:50,191 demands that behavior. 171 00:10:51,011 --> 00:10:54,254 Again, it's structural. 172 00:10:59,008 --> 00:11:01,985 How is it in a world that's supposed to be economizing... 173 00:11:02,125 --> 00:11:05,713 What is the definition of an economy? It means the management of a household. 174 00:11:05,853 --> 00:11:09,115 What does that mean? It implies that you have to be thrift. 175 00:11:09,255 --> 00:11:13,594 It means you e-con-o-mize; it means you save; it means you are strategic 176 00:11:13,744 --> 00:11:17,177 in what you do. How is an economy based on consumption 177 00:11:17,327 --> 00:11:20,562 to maintain your employment, economizing at all? 178 00:11:20,712 --> 00:11:25,719 Obviously, it's a complete anti-economy. 179 00:11:31,875 --> 00:11:34,030 It's time we consider among all of this 180 00:11:34,180 --> 00:11:37,164 that the problems we're seeing (that we're here about) 181 00:11:38,223 --> 00:11:41,265 are actually systemically rooted in the core structure 182 00:11:41,415 --> 00:11:43,559 of what defines our economic system 183 00:11:43,709 --> 00:11:48,175 and the psychology that is created, supported and rewarded. 184 00:11:48,343 --> 00:11:53,878 I keep hearing the phrase in the Occupy Movement "We are the 99%" 185 00:11:54,028 --> 00:11:57,752 and while I understand and admire that communicative gesture 186 00:11:57,972 --> 00:12:02,081 I would like to expand back and think about this a little bit more technically. 187 00:12:02,956 --> 00:12:06,260 I think it's a little more accurate to say "We are not the 99%. 188 00:12:06,577 --> 00:12:09,329 We are actually the 100%" 189 00:12:11,099 --> 00:12:14,868 and all of us are to blame. 190 00:12:16,473 --> 00:12:18,528 The only reason the 1% have what they do 191 00:12:18,678 --> 00:12:22,676 is because the 99% continues to support all the elements 192 00:12:22,826 --> 00:12:26,647 that fuel the wealth of the 1%. 193 00:12:26,904 --> 00:12:32,653 The system is literally designed to support the 1% over the 99. 194 00:12:33,153 --> 00:12:37,319 The values that we see in our culture are designed to make sure 195 00:12:37,469 --> 00:12:41,947 you aspire to those that maintain the role of the 1%. 196 00:12:42,097 --> 00:12:44,598 It's called 'The American Dream' remember? 197 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:49,870 The American Dream which only exists for the 1%. It always did. 198 00:12:51,494 --> 00:12:57,150 Our success is often measured in our material wealth 199 00:12:57,300 --> 00:13:01,799 or how we gain admiration in the culture 200 00:13:01,949 --> 00:13:05,686 our dignity defined by what others think of us. 201 00:13:06,119 --> 00:13:08,062 Is that true success? 202 00:13:08,589 --> 00:13:12,509 No, that is a false distorted value that came from a system 203 00:13:12,659 --> 00:13:17,364 that needed to be based on everyone being acquisitive, competitive 204 00:13:17,644 --> 00:13:21,635 cut-throat and essentially inhumane. 205 00:13:25,672 --> 00:13:28,408 The historical illusion, I have to point out 206 00:13:29,109 --> 00:13:31,912 which continues to this day, which I know is manifest 207 00:13:32,145 --> 00:13:35,215 in a lot of gestures here in this audience and across the world 208 00:13:35,482 --> 00:13:39,570 (rightfully so, but it's still an illusion) is that 209 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:43,874 there is some person or group that is explicitly to blame. 210 00:13:44,024 --> 00:13:45,524 Rather than focus on the fact 211 00:13:45,654 --> 00:13:48,877 that the 1% of the world's population has over 40% of the planet's wealth 212 00:13:49,027 --> 00:13:53,672 let's instead ask ourselves the question "How is that even possible?" 213 00:13:53,934 --> 00:13:57,838 How is that even possible that our system allows for such a thing? 214 00:14:00,174 --> 00:14:02,342 Do we really have grounds to be surprised 215 00:14:02,543 --> 00:14:04,711 at the way the world is operating? 216 00:14:04,978 --> 00:14:08,382 When the very foundation of what motivates the current social order 217 00:14:08,582 --> 00:14:13,420 is taken into account, should we really be surprised at all? 218 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,692 "What is the economy?" I ask the question. 219 00:14:19,059 --> 00:14:22,246 The monetary market model at work in the world 220 00:14:22,396 --> 00:14:24,565 means that through the movement of money 221 00:14:24,898 --> 00:14:28,519 power and property can be bought and sold at will 222 00:14:28,669 --> 00:14:32,105 within the confines of legal legislation 223 00:14:32,306 --> 00:14:37,211 which is 'for sale' in the open market 224 00:14:37,377 --> 00:14:41,114 just as all politicians are for sale in the open market; 225 00:14:41,315 --> 00:14:44,151 just as all administrations, policies in general 226 00:14:44,384 --> 00:14:47,554 are for sale in the open market. What did you expect 227 00:14:47,754 --> 00:14:49,606 when the whole system is based upon 228 00:14:49,756 --> 00:14:54,962 the buying and selling of property, power and influence? 229 00:14:57,500 --> 00:14:59,850 There is no escape from the influence of money 230 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,102 with respect to governmental policy, why? 231 00:15:02,269 --> 00:15:05,672 Because government in this system is nothing more than a business. 232 00:15:06,073 --> 00:15:09,343 That's all it can be and I hope that can become clear 233 00:15:09,543 --> 00:15:12,062 in the minds of many and see the true root of change 234 00:15:12,212 --> 00:15:14,870 has to be beyond the lobbying for government 235 00:15:15,020 --> 00:15:19,219 to do things within our favor. It has to go deeper. 236 00:15:22,623 --> 00:15:26,260 While people in the world continue to protest this system 237 00:15:26,426 --> 00:15:30,931 they come up with such terms as 'corporatism' and 'crony capitalism' 238 00:15:31,098 --> 00:15:35,219 and even 'fascism' to highlight the legal reality 239 00:15:35,369 --> 00:15:39,206 that businesses can influence all legislations to what's called 240 00:15:39,373 --> 00:15:43,243 'corporate lobbying', yet it's legal. Why wouldn't it be? 241 00:15:43,443 --> 00:15:45,145 This is what the system is. 242 00:15:45,746 --> 00:15:48,549 It's those that seem to impose the assumption 243 00:15:48,882 --> 00:15:52,352 that this system is something that it isn't, that continues to bother me. 244 00:15:52,519 --> 00:15:55,746 This system was always fascist at its very origin. 245 00:15:55,896 --> 00:15:59,760 It just took this long for the root of it to rise to the top 246 00:15:59,927 --> 00:16:01,995 because the cancer continues to grow 247 00:16:02,196 --> 00:16:04,598 and now the social immune system is noticing it 248 00:16:04,765 --> 00:16:08,468 and that's the only difference. 249 00:16:13,740 --> 00:16:16,043 Do you know what creates jobs in the world today? 250 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:18,946 Problems. 251 00:16:19,413 --> 00:16:22,583 Everyone talks about labor. Do you know what really creates jobs? 252 00:16:22,749 --> 00:16:25,819 Problems! In an efficient world, there would be less of a need 253 00:16:26,019 --> 00:16:30,407 for all of us to be employed or to engage in any type of long-term action 254 00:16:30,557 --> 00:16:32,292 that we would consider a job. 255 00:16:32,492 --> 00:16:34,895 People would learn to be satisfied and not greedy. 256 00:16:35,095 --> 00:16:37,798 They would learn to understand their relationship to the environment. 257 00:16:37,965 --> 00:16:42,603 The system of progress would be less need to resolve problems 258 00:16:42,803 --> 00:16:47,608 not more being generated, which is what we're doing today. 259 00:16:50,110 --> 00:16:54,465 In other words, there was an empirical decoupling 260 00:16:54,615 --> 00:16:59,920 from what actually supports life on this planet and the scientific reality 261 00:17:00,220 --> 00:17:02,890 that we inhabit and have been learning about. 262 00:17:03,657 --> 00:17:05,893 It's built right in. 263 00:17:06,059 --> 00:17:09,128 The monetary market system at its core must change 264 00:17:09,268 --> 00:17:13,401 not the policies that regulate it. On a different level, 265 00:17:13,541 --> 00:17:16,711 just to throw this in for those who have never thought about the fact 266 00:17:16,851 --> 00:17:20,840 that the entire structure of our economy is intrinsically flawed 267 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:25,195 there's a culturally hegemonic attribute of this system that goes unnoticed: 268 00:17:25,345 --> 00:17:28,740 If you have $1,000,000 269 00:17:28,890 --> 00:17:30,868 and you put it into bank account 270 00:17:31,018 --> 00:17:34,888 a CD investment at 4% interest 271 00:17:35,180 --> 00:17:37,970 you will make $40,000 a year, for doing what? 272 00:17:38,110 --> 00:17:39,532 [Nothing] 273 00:17:39,672 --> 00:17:42,496 However, if you take loans to buy your home 274 00:17:43,163 --> 00:17:45,933 and you need to take out credit as it's called 275 00:17:46,266 --> 00:17:49,503 you're paying interest in, and guess where that interest goes? 276 00:17:49,803 --> 00:17:53,257 It goes to fuel the 1% or those with the wealth 277 00:17:53,407 --> 00:17:57,177 that have the ability to actually deposit money and make money off of it. 278 00:17:57,377 --> 00:18:00,214 Am I the only one that sees that hegemonic flaw in that? 279 00:18:00,447 --> 00:18:02,749 Yet you rarely see a sign being held up 280 00:18:02,916 --> 00:18:05,285 defending or defining the interest system. 281 00:18:05,385 --> 00:18:06,885 You rarely hear people ask 282 00:18:06,985 --> 00:18:09,656 "Why do we even have interest to begin with?" 283 00:18:09,857 --> 00:18:12,282 It's one of those things that goes unnoticed. 284 00:18:20,362 --> 00:18:22,101 It's in the interest of the 1% 285 00:18:22,241 --> 00:18:26,466 that we all seem to think it's OK and normal. This is the problem. 286 00:18:26,606 --> 00:18:29,244 No one's realizing what the structural problem actually is. 287 00:18:29,384 --> 00:18:32,005 They don't realize the reinforcement they are doing 288 00:18:32,145 --> 00:18:34,064 to actually continue this system 289 00:18:34,214 --> 00:18:37,117 while on the other side of their awareness they think they're fighting it. 290 00:18:37,284 --> 00:18:38,784 In fact I'll say this 291 00:18:39,086 --> 00:18:41,680 The values that comprise our culture today 292 00:18:41,830 --> 00:18:45,526 are what actually support the higher level classes 293 00:18:45,726 --> 00:18:50,697 and systematically repress them without them even knowing it. 294 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:54,718 As I began to say earlier 295 00:18:54,868 --> 00:18:59,573 in the 1960s a man named Stokely Carmichael, the famous activist 296 00:19:00,162 --> 00:19:04,711 coined a very important phrase called 'institutional racism'. 297 00:19:06,062 --> 00:19:08,782 This was referring to how unnoticed 298 00:19:08,965 --> 00:19:12,202 underlying policies and structures within the social system 299 00:19:12,352 --> 00:19:16,490 undermined African-American prosperity and equality. 300 00:19:16,958 --> 00:19:19,710 What we have today is a mere variation. 301 00:19:19,860 --> 00:19:22,329 It's institutional classism. 302 00:19:22,668 --> 00:19:25,882 And it is equally a civil rights issue as anything else 303 00:19:26,032 --> 00:19:28,802 that has ever existed. 304 00:19:32,633 --> 00:19:35,676 Coming back to the nature of Occupy Wall Street 305 00:19:35,915 --> 00:19:40,063 Wall Street itself as we know, which is the ultimate manifestation 306 00:19:40,213 --> 00:19:42,349 of the pursuit of money as a commodity 307 00:19:42,745 --> 00:19:46,720 rather than any form of true creation or social contribution 308 00:19:47,081 --> 00:19:50,939 is naturally ripe for symbolic objection. 309 00:19:51,079 --> 00:19:53,607 At a minimum, it shouldn't exist at all 310 00:19:53,747 --> 00:19:56,006 and most certainly not have the grand effect it does 311 00:19:56,156 --> 00:19:59,456 on the stability of our economy today. 312 00:19:59,606 --> 00:20:02,138 That being stated, it must again be made clear 313 00:20:02,288 --> 00:20:06,215 that Wall Street and the banking system are not the source of our problems. 314 00:20:06,355 --> 00:20:10,197 They are only symptoms of a larger order economic cancer 315 00:20:10,337 --> 00:20:14,454 which will continue to not only create more imbalance 316 00:20:14,594 --> 00:20:18,883 but will completely eventually fail by its own gravity 317 00:20:19,023 --> 00:20:22,823 and its outdated assumptions of our human conduct 318 00:20:23,175 --> 00:20:27,963 and its false environmental relationships. 319 00:20:29,101 --> 00:20:32,449 What we are seeing in the world today is, in my view 320 00:20:32,599 --> 00:20:35,469 the beginning of the end 321 00:20:35,707 --> 00:20:38,605 when it comes to the protest movements that have been started. 322 00:20:40,341 --> 00:20:43,447 This is the beginning of a change of values and structure 323 00:20:43,597 --> 00:20:46,005 that has been needed for a very long time 324 00:20:46,155 --> 00:20:49,476 for our emerging understanding is now overriding 325 00:20:49,626 --> 00:20:53,416 the traditional assumptions that have held these structures in place. 326 00:20:55,216 --> 00:20:57,500 I want to ask one final question: 327 00:21:00,191 --> 00:21:03,330 If you were given the option 328 00:21:03,470 --> 00:21:07,577 to participate in a program of sharing 329 00:21:08,609 --> 00:21:11,805 to have the values where someone said to you 330 00:21:12,382 --> 00:21:16,176 "If I give to you, would you be willing to give to me?" 331 00:21:16,327 --> 00:21:19,413 not in the sense of barter 332 00:21:19,580 --> 00:21:23,541 but in the value of simply what it means to actually give 333 00:21:23,691 --> 00:21:26,440 and the understanding that when you look back at your life in the future 334 00:21:26,590 --> 00:21:28,447 are you really going to remember 335 00:21:28,597 --> 00:21:32,160 (I'm speaking to the whole of whoever is listening here, not just you)? 336 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,295 Are you going to remember all those things you did in your self-interest? 337 00:21:35,495 --> 00:21:38,699 Are the CEO's and bankers and the elite that exist 338 00:21:38,988 --> 00:21:41,667 really going to have pride in themselves 339 00:21:41,807 --> 00:21:44,477 when they look back at their lives to think that all the money 340 00:21:44,617 --> 00:21:47,986 they've acquired actually was a measure of some type of success? 341 00:21:48,126 --> 00:21:50,077 Isn't the true measure of success 342 00:21:50,590 --> 00:21:53,046 your ability to relate to your environment 343 00:21:53,243 --> 00:21:54,919 hence the immediate reciprocation 344 00:21:55,069 --> 00:21:59,451 that defines our intrinsic unification and unity? 345 00:22:04,862 --> 00:22:07,637 I'm not here to say when I address the monetary system 346 00:22:07,787 --> 00:22:11,154 that we don't need 'surgery' to remove the effects 347 00:22:11,304 --> 00:22:12,951 and cancers of this system. 348 00:22:13,101 --> 00:22:16,003 The tumors, in fact, we desperately do. 349 00:22:16,257 --> 00:22:20,129 We do need massive political pressures and to do whatever we can 350 00:22:20,279 --> 00:22:24,117 to help this system push into the right direction 351 00:22:24,267 --> 00:22:26,391 but I have to remind all of you that 352 00:22:26,541 --> 00:22:28,467 until the root source is addressed 353 00:22:28,617 --> 00:22:30,841 until the movement comes together globally 354 00:22:30,991 --> 00:22:34,037 as it is slowly doing that's willing to work together 355 00:22:34,187 --> 00:22:36,523 to override the system as it exists 356 00:22:36,687 --> 00:22:39,943 not to find a seat at the 'proverbial table' 357 00:22:40,093 --> 00:22:43,130 but to establish a completely new table 358 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,671 no long-term societal change is going to work. 359 00:22:51,205 --> 00:22:54,194 I leave that with you and I deeply commend you on your courage 360 00:22:54,344 --> 00:22:57,711 and I thank you for your time and good luck! 361 00:22:58,143 --> 00:23:02,282 [Applause]